Find out how we dispose of wastewater from residential, commercial and industrial properties in Lower Hutt.
Managing wastewater - sewage and trade wastes
We aim to dispose of wastewater in an efficient, environmentally friendly, healthy way.
Wastewater is the term used to describe a combination of domestic sewage and trade wastes. Domestic sewage comes from showers, baths, toilets and kitchens. Trade wastes are liquid wastes produced by a number of industrial and commercial activities.
Here’s what you can expect from us when it comes to your wastewater disposal.
Service availability
- The wastewater service to your property will be available at least 99.9% of the time
- Interruptions to the wastewater service to individual properties won't exceed 24 hours at any one time
How we work
- We’ll notify all property owners or occupiers at least 24 hours before starting planned maintenance or upgrades that may affect them.
- We’ll give advance notice to property owners or occupiers before urgent work is carried out on private property. We'll also give written notification of the work.
- Employees and contractors of Hutt City Council and Wellington Water will carry identification. They must show you this if they need to enter your property.
- We’ll reinstate any private property disturbed by us or our contractors. This will be done to a standard as close as practical to the existing before the work was carried out.
- We’ll help you locate public or private wastewater pipelines within your property.
Our timeframes
- We’ll respond to urgent work requirements within an hour. Urgent work is the non-availability of wastewater service, and significant health, safety and/or environmental risk.
- We’ll respond to non-urgent work requirements within 24 hours. Non-urgent work is nuisance or partial disruption to wastewater service.
- We’ll respond to routine work requirements and enquiries within five working days.
You're responsible for drains
You own and are responsible for all drains, pipe work and plumbing that service your property and which are upstream of the point of service.
How to find the ‘point of service’ on your property
Our point of service for wastewater services is the junction connection on the Council main (pipeline).
We’re responsible for maintaining the wastewater system up to and including the point of service.
There are a few simple steps you can take to protect the your wastewater system, the environment, and help minimise future costs to ratepayers
Here's how you can help:
- Take all reasonable care to avoid damaging public wastewater pipes which pass through your property. Make sure we can get quick and clear access to these pipes in case we need to repair them.
- Don't plant any trees or shrubs on your property within 1.5 metres of buried wastewater pipelines.
- Don't discharge your rain water straight into the wastewater system - we provide separate systems for stormwater disposal. When stormwater flows into our wastewater system it can quickly become overloaded. This can lead to sewage overflows.
- Keep your wastewater drainage system in good condition and make sure it meets the requirements of the New Zealand Building Code. This will minimise the likelihood of health risks to anyone using your property.
- Don't discharge motor oil, fuels, solvents or highly toxic substances into the wastewater system. Contact us if you need to deal with toxic wastes.
- Let us know first if you plan to discharge liquid wastes from commercial or industrial processes to the wastewater system. We'll check and let you know if you need to get a trade waste consent (licence).
Wastewater
| Service | 2024/2025 |
|---|---|
| Wastewater connection application fee | $140.00 |
| Wastewater connection fee | Actual cost to approved contractors |
Note: These are the proposed fees and charges for 2024-25, based on in-principle decisions made by Council on 7 June 2024. These fees and charges will be confirmed when the Long Term Plan is adopted on 30 June 2024, and will take effect from 1 July 2024. They may be subject to change before 30 June 2024.
If your business drains waste water into the sewer, you may need to apply for a trade waste discharge consent.